Till He Could Dig
by PeaceLoveAndCheese
Summary: "If you were missing, he'd burn the world down till he could dig you out of the ashes." Or, just how far Clint is willing to go to when it comes to Natasha. CLINTASHA AND LOTS OF HURT!VENGERS. For Lunalove25


**So... YAY REQUESTS! **

**Lunalove25 asked me for this one, and because I was in the middle of some stuff that I had no inspiration for, I decided that I could write her a really quick one-shot... that turned into more than a one-shot...**

**ANYWAY! We've got pretty much hurt!Avengers (but especially Steve and Natasha), Clintasha, Tony being a bro, Thor being clueless, and much action and adventure and excitement!**

**Hope you enjoy it, Luny! And everyone else!**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own the wonderful world of the Avengers. The end.**

* * *

"If you were missing, he'd burn the world down till he could dig you out of the ashes."

~ Cassandra Clare, _City of Lost Souls_

* * *

"There's a building down on Fourth, and more s headed your way, Stark!" Captain America's voice was a lot different than Steve's, and Clint found himself resenting it slightly. Only slightly, though. Even if he did like to fly solo, there was something that he could appreciate in their leader.

"On it," Tony replied over their five-way coms. Clint could hear his thrusters going as Iron Man sped over the streets of the city.

"Hawkeye?" Steve asked.

"Captain," Clint replied, nocking another arrow and firing it without taking his eyes off the green mass bounding across the buildings. Hulk roared, and flung some alien-robot-bad thing sideways, where it crashed into three of its brethren, sending up sparks.

"Can you see the controller from here? I'm right below it." Clint's eyes moved to the left, and he nodded, even though he knew Captain America couldn't see him.

"I got it."

"Good." Clint could almost see Steve's eyes flicking back and forth, his mind racing, formulating plans at a speed greater then Clint could shoot, while still destroying armies with that shield. "I need you to take it out."

Clint sighed. "Roger that, Rogers." He flipped over the side of the building, swinging one of his grappling hooks up, catching the ledge he had previously been standing on, and swinging feet first towards the wall, catching himself on his toes. Luckily, the building with the freaking controller and crazy mastermind was only half a mile away. Piece of cake.

Something crackled into Clint's earpiece, and he heard Steve swear under his breath. "Thor's fried his com again."

Clint chuckled. Third time that week.

"Steve, there's a dozen coming your way." Natasha's voice floated through the communication system, and Clint almost held his breath, but he let it out in time to smash through an office window, curling into a somersault and coming up standing to sprint across the building to the window directly across from it.

"Iron Man, where are you?" One hundred feet from the other side.

"Um..." The beep of the Iron Man suit, could be heard before Tony spoke again. "I'm sort of headed your way... need a lift?"

"If you could," Clint said, snatching another arrow from his quiver and locking into place. Fifty feet.

"I'll be there ASAP."

"Steve!" Natasha shouted. Steve grunted, and Clint heard some sort of explosion. He winced. Thirty feet.

"Stark, now would be nice."

"I'm almost there!" Twenty feet.

"Tony, if you don't get your ass over here-" Ten feet.

"Hawkeye, I can only fly so fast."

"Clint, don't you dare-" So Steve hadn't been blown up. Yet.

"FLY FASTER!" Five feet.

"Wha-CLINT WAIT!"

Clint was already out the window.

He twisted in midair, falling so his feet were to the ground. Something _whooshed_ over him, and he felt the heat of the Iron Man thrusters. A hand grabbed his shirt collar, and Clint reached up, grabbing a chink in the suit that was put in especially for these situations, before Tony could choke him.

"Yeah, you're lucky I can fly pretty damn quick," Stark was muttering. "You're not an actual bird, genius."

"Just get me to that controller, Stark."

"Steve!" Nat shouted again. The Black Widow sounded furious. "There's too many!"

"I know, I know!" Captain America hollered back. "Natasha, stay where you are! Banner-HULK!" There was a roar in the distance.

"Coming at the roof, my fine-feathered friend," Stark said, slowing his thrusters down.

"Gotcha," Clint said, readying his bow. "Thanks for the ride, Super-Suit."

"No problem," Tony said, before he let go.

Clint tucked into a roll and came up standing. The scientist by the controller turned just in time for Clint to release his arrow, which sliced through the man's coat, thrusting him back and pinning him into the wall directly behind.

With that threat out of the way, and no alien things on the roof, Clint dropped to one knee, pulling out his latest Special. Stark and Banner had both been working on this one for the past few weeks. Clint didn't even know what it did, but Tony had assured him it would work.

He hooked the arrowhead to a shaft that contained a battery cell and some wiring, then fit it into his bow. "I've got aim."

"Take it out!" Steve shouted. "Natasha-STAY WHERE YOU ARE."

"Steve, you've got too many on you!"

"CAP, GET CLEAR OF THE BUILDING!" Tony shouted.

"I've-" Steve was suddenly cut off.

"STEVE!"

"Natasha, he told you to stay back!"

"I don't care!" Clint smiled slightly at Natasha's fire. It matched her hair, that personality.

Tony sounded exasperated. "I will drag you out of there."

Hulk roared.

"Hawk... let... end... now..." Steve's com crackled, and the super-soldier's speech sounded strangely slurred.

"I've taken aim," Clint told him.

"Wait!" Nat shouted.

"WAIT!" Tony yelled.

There was a crack of thunder, and suddenly, Clint could feel Thor's hand closing around his bicep.

Steve's com cracked again, but Clint could make out the words, "Shoot!"

"No-STEVE!" Natasha shouted.

"BOMB!" Tony yelled.

"CLINT, DO IT NOW!" Steve's voice came charging through, just as something zapped and crashed and clanged and there was a thud and-

Clint let the arrow fly.

It smashed into the controller's mainframe, and immediately, everything went wrong.

Thor's hammer swung around just in time, and he and Clint were lifted up by Mjolnir's power as the controller exploded. Even so, Clint could feel the heat of the explosion and rubble stinging his face, leaving cuts and what were sure to become bruises. The entire top of the building burst into a shower of bricks and dust and metal and mortar, raining down on the street below.

From what Clint could see through the dust, the robot things were now short-circuiting, falling into untimely heaps on the streets... well, those that weren't being buried by the collapsing building.

As fast as they went up, Thor brought them down, landing a few blocks away so as not to get crushed by the debris that was falling. A red and gold speck was shooting towards them, dodging still falling bits of office building as the last of it crashed down onto the pavement, leaving a craggy bottom jutting out of the dust.

"So much for not destroying anymore public property," Clint muttered. Fortunately, the civilians had mostly been evacuated as soon as the attack started, and there were definitely none in this sector.

Thor frowned. "Anthony does not look pleased."

Indeed, even with thrusters sputtering, Stark was going fast. He landed a few feet away and stumbled over to Thor and Clint, his face mask shooting up, revealing his raged expression.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK I MEAN BY BOMB, YOU IDIOT?" Stark's voice had been raised more than his usual decibel. "I TOLD YOU-BOMB, I SAID, DIDN'T I? I TOLD YOU THAT IT WAS A BOMB AND WHAT DO YOU GO AND DO? SHOOT IT AND BLOW IT UP-"

"Yeah?" Clint said. "And now the robots are down. I did my job, Stark, don't get your knickers in a twist."

Tony breathed out heavily. "You did your-DAMN IT, BARTON, THE STREET'S BURIED. HOW ARE THEY-"

"What?" Clint asked, blood running cold.

Stark shook his head, running a hand over his face. "Cap was down there. And last I saw, Natasha was defying orders and charging off to save his sorry ass and YOU COLLAPSED THE BUILDING ON TOP OF THEM."

Tony's words rang horribly in his ears. He remembered Steve saying something-_ "Can you see the controller from here? I'm right below it."-_ and he suddenly couldn't breathe. _Natasha. _

Tony was frantically trying to radio them in. "Steve? Natasha? Answer me, damnit!" He yanked the earpiece out and threw it to the ground.

"We have to get them out," Clint said quietly.

Tony huffed a breath. "We can't exactly do that if we don't know where they are." He growled, and glared at Clint.

Clint threw down his bow and slipped out of his quiver, running towards the pile of rubble that was still exuding dust. He heard Tony curse behind him, but the Iron Man thrusters started up again.

Clint called her name, clambering up the mountainous pile of bricks and stuff, dropping to his hands and knees and yanking away bricks and pieces of metal. Something made a large gash across his palm, but he ignored it.

Tony was currently blasting away bricks and stuff at the very top of the mess. "JARVIS, can you find heat signatures?"

"Working on it, sir," the AI said, not sounding particularly reassuring. There were a few moments of silence and a couple beeps that Clint ignored in favor of slipping downwards into the mess a bit. "There is one a few feet to Mr. Barton's right, sir."

"Thank you," Tony said, ever polite to his computerized butler. Clint felt something large fly over him. Thor landed nearby and began copying Clint's movements. The Hulk bellowed farther away and began thrusting fistfuls of building away, Thor having somewhat explained the situation to him.

Iron Man flew over, knocking Clint out of the way, not too gently, and blasted away at the spot where JARVIS had said there was a heat signature-which turned out to be a coffee machine from the office building that had exploded and was now smoldering.

Tony swore. "Keep digging."

Clint did. He wasn't about to give up now. Not if Tasha was down there. _Why?_

From behind him, the Hulk roared in triumph. Thor called over to them. "Clint! Anthony! Banner appears to have found Steven!"

Almost immediately, Clint was up and stumbling over the uneven bricked ground. Tony flew overhead. They peered down into the crater that the Hulk created, and spied the dusty strip of crumpled metal and bit of red, white, and blue uniform that (hopefully) was connected to an arm, which (hopefully) was connected to Steve.

"JARVIS?" Stark prompted.

"The stability of the structure is at 81.3 percent," JARVIS reported. "If you can shift the beams to your immediate right, you can get Captain Rogers out with a 5.4 chance of collapse, sir."

"And worst case scenario?"

"The entire thing will cave in on itself, leaving Captain Rogers buried thoroughly and with a 34.8 chance of survival."

"Great," Tony muttered. He glanced around. "Looks like I'm second-in-command." He pointed at Thor and Clint. "The both of you... get that beam and lift it out. If you do that, I can wedge the other in better."

Clint nodded, though some tiny part of him was thinking, _This is useless. _He didn't _want _to be saving the Super Soldier right now, because he had infinitely better chances of still being okay after all this. Natasha did not, and she was, as she had always been, Clint's Number One.

He did what Tony said, however, and with the help of Thor, lifted the beam out.

There was a groaning noise, Tony cursed, and _shoved_ the other beam in to the rubble. A few loose bricks rained down onto Captain America's shield, and Clint winced.

"Get. Him. Out!" Tony yelled through gritted teeth. Clint froze, but Thor reached down and curled his hand around the sheet of metal, dragging it forwards and revealing the Captain America uniform. He threw the metal up, where it clanged onto the bricks with a hollow ringing sound.

Tony let the beam go, and it stayed. He reached down to Thor and grabbed the back of the torn blue cloth, pulling up hard. There was a crunch, and the sound of something collapsing, but Captain America came free and Thor and Tony dragged him out from his prison, laying him down on the shifting mound of bricks.

"Natasha?" Clint asked.

"JARVIS?" was Tony's answer.

"According to my calculations, Agent Romanov should be almost a meter to your left, sir."

Clint must have looked at the suit with disbelief, because Tony shot him a glare. "I saw them go down, Bird Brain. If JARVIS says that's where she is, that's where she is."

"Fine," Clint conceded.

Steve groaned. The three of them dropped over him, with the Hulk staying surprisingly quiet in the background.

"Nat... where...?" Steve asked, his eyelids fluttering. "... okay?"

"She'll be fine, Steven," Thor reassured him.

Steve lethargically moved his eyes back and forth, trying to get a visual. "She was... right... there..." He made an attempt to sit up, but Tony pushed him back down.

"Take it easy, Cap. You just got buried by a building. We can handle it."

"But... Natasha..." Steve's forehead creased. "She... hurt..."

The word _hurt _registered in Clint's brain like a missile. "Natasha!" He dove over to the spot that Steve was trying to stare at through a concussion and began scrambling to unbury it. The mound shifted, and Tony yelped.

"Clint, hold it!"

He was past listening to orders at that point.

"Sir, I would not recommend you move anything further. Doing so will undoubtedly collapse the structure."

"Yeah, thanks, JARVIS," Tony said, stepping towards Clint. "Thor, get Steve. Hulk... can you possibly Banner again?" Clint heard the Hulk grumble and stomp down the street. "Clint... stop."

"But..." Clint scrabbled with the rubble fervently, only succeeding in cutting his hands and making the bricks sway dangerously.

"Anthony..." Thor said uneasily. Steve groaned.

"Clint, now." Stark's voice had gone past ordering and was now bordering the line of "do what I say or I will kill you right now."

Clint bit back a sob that threatened to burst out of his throat. He stood, and slowly made his way back towards Tony.

"Nat..." he muttered.

"I know, but we need to find another way. You can't just assume that a blown up building is going to be okay after you blow it up... Clint, why are you looking at me like that?"

"Blow it up," Clint murmured. "I could blow it up."

"Wha-" The idea seemed too crazy, even for Tony. "No, you can't!"

"I need to get her out of there!" Clint exclaimed, his hands unconsciously clenching into fists. "And if this is the only way, then I'm doing it."

Tony looked at Clint with his mouth open a bit, then closed it and shook his head. "I... I'm..." He stopped and sighed. "JARVIS, how would that work? Blowing it up... again."

"There are a majority of risks, but if Agent Barton can concentrate the source of the blast approximately one hundred and thirty feet to your right... then, yes, sir, there is a relatively good chance that Agent Romanov's position will be revealed."

"And that's good enough for me," Clint said, flipping an arrow from it's quiver and nocking his bow.

The pile shifted again, and they looked over. Thor was hovering about a bit desperately, his hands fluttering about Steve, who was currently trying to stand up, but not getting very far. He grasped at his ribs, staggering and clutching Thor's shoulder.

Tony let an exasperated gasp through his nose. "Rogers, what are you doing?"

"Helping..." Steve ground out, just as his knees gave way again and he collapsed into Thor's arms, who scooped him up like he didn't weigh a thing.

"Yeah, no you're not," Stark said, pointing. "Thor, take him over there." The god obeyed, and Tony turned back to Clint.

"I really hope you know what you're doing, Barton."

"I'd stand back if I were you." And Clint let the arrow fly.

The bricks went up in a concentrated blast of fire and mortar. Clint ducked, covering his head as Tony flew backwards, almost colliding with another building. Smoke and dust, a lot less than than before, rained down on them, and when it clear, there was another crater, a lot larger than the one that the Hulk had made.

Clint immediately threw his bow down, running over to the smoking crater and slipping down it's edges. He coughed as the fine dirt filtered his lungs. "NATASHA! NATA-"

There she was, a still form lying in the midst of a couple robot corpses and collapsed building, with Captain America's shield a few inches away from her fingertips. He ran over, falling to his knees, and scooping her into his arms, pressing his fingers onto her cheeks, pressing his lips to hers.

"Nat! Nat..." There it was. A heartbeat. A faint rising of her chest. She had blood on her face and a wound in her leg that didn't look very fun. He didn't want to put her down again, but Tony poked his head over the hole in the ground.

"... ah." He disappeared for a moment, calling, "BANNER!" A couple seconds later, and Bruce was clambering down into the hole. The doctor looked exhausted, dark circles underneath his eyes and pale complexion. He wobbled a bit while getting down, shirtless and wearing baggy khakis that still had the tag attached. Must've stolen a new pair.

"Let me see," he gasped, and dropped down beside Clint, his hands running over Natasha gently. "Few broken ribs... probably concussion... nasty puncture wound in the left calf." He ran a hand over his face, and glanced up at Clint. "She'll be fine, Clint."

A breathe he hadn't realized he was holding was released, and his arms sagged a bit. Natasha sighed in unconsciousness.

"Well, that's fan-freaking-tastic!" Tony piped up. He had a cut on his cheek that was bleeding freshly, from the recent explosion, Clint assumed. "Hey, Pikachu!"

Thor's head popped over the hole. "I do not understand why you insist on calling me by the name of a character made for Midgardian infants."

"I'll explain later. For now, you're our residential strong man, with Captain Naptime out of commission up there."

Clint instinctively tightened his grip on Natasha. "I'll do it."

"Yeah right, Bird's Nest," Tony said. "There's no way. Besides, someone needs to help Bruce get out before he keels over."

"I'm fine," Bruce muttered, looking very much less than fine and about ready to pass out.

"Yeah, and I'm the queen of England."

"In what ways do you represent a female ruler of that nation?" Thor said, looking confused as he gingerly pried Natasha away from Clint, who hadn't even notice he'd come.

"It's an expression, big guy," Tony said, grabbing Bruce's arm as the scientist swayed dangerously. "Let's get out of here. JARVIS has already called for backup. They should be here any minute now."

Thor was already well out of the crater by the time Clint and Tony dragged Bruce up as well. He set Natasha down softly next to Steve, whose head lolled to the side to gaze at her.

"She a'right?" Muddled speech. Not the best thing.

"Miraculously," Tony muttered under his breath.

"A lot better than you, Steve," Bruce said softly. "Somehow, she didn't get the full force of the explosion."

Steve slurred something that sounded suspiciously like, "Cause I pushed her."

Tony sighed and slumped against the wall next to Steve. Bruce sat down next to him, putting his head between his knees. Clint followed suit and sat next to Natasha, leaving Thor standing and looking up at the sky as the sound of engines roared overhead.

"And the calvary's a'comin," Tony murmured. He rolled his head over to Clint. "Burn down the world, huh?"

Clint nodded and brushed some of the hair that graced her face like fire behind her ear, as she sighed in her sleep. "Always."


End file.
